Due to a variety of circumstances, my party size has been reduced to two members, a 10th level half-drow/half-wood elf barbarian2/fighter8 and a 8th level wild elf ranger (TWF style). The cleric and wizard left last week and the rouge was killed off months ago. Needless to say, I cannot continue on my original game plan or outline. Last night, I skimmed through a few Dungeon magazines and found an interesting adventure in issue #105.
I don't remember what it was called but it is for a party of 4 of levels 3. 20 giant bees (plus a queen bee) have made a wooden bridge spanning a chasm their new home and it is blocking the only trade route to this halfling village. Mayer asks for help, party accepts (or else there is no adventure) and they fight off the bees. They can't use fire to get the bees out since it would burn the bridge down. There are high winds in the area and it is very difficult to smoke out the bees.
The adventure suggests making the module harder by making the bees (CR1) giant wasps (CR3) instead. Or give a couple of the bees the half-dragon template. Another suggestion it offered was to give the quest to the party druid or ranger and inform them that they need to deal with the bees but are not allowed to kill the bees. And finally, as a last suggestion, was to put in a murder that needs to be solved. For this, they suggested that the local wine maker was a 5th level sorcerer who wanted to make his wine taste better. He found the bee hive (not at the bridge – it didn’t exsist yet) and he took the honey. He also took the honey that designates a new queen bee and he put this in his wine. The bees come to town looking for a new queen and settle down in the bridge where there isn’t much traffic to bother them. The sheriff finds out what the wine maker did, the wine maker kills him to hide the fact and then the PCs come around finding hints that the wine maker is up to something suspicious. Once the PCs connect the wine maker to the murder of the sheriff, the wine maker uses hit and run tactics to kill the PCs with wands of monster summoning spells.
My problem is this – The ranger in the party has no master or mentor so I’m trying to figure out a way to make the party deal with the bees without killing them. If I change the bees to wasps … who wants to keep those around? That makes it very quickly into a hack and slash (which I want to avoid badly – the party just left the underdark and most of that adventure was hack and slash). Dragon bees seem odd to me, especially when I use the murder pitch that was offered in the module. Roasted honey wine?
I’d appreciate any suggestions to bump this level 3 module to one sort of challenging for a level 10 pc with a level 8 pc.
Ideally, the party would have to deal with the bees without killing them. Maybe find a place to relocate them and then do so. Along the way, they find they the wine maker is involved in a murder.
My primary concern is I have no valid reason to make the PCs keep the bees alive and if I change them out for wasps, it is another hack and slash adventure (all the halflings are scared and stay safely in town – few RPing opportunities). Suggestions? Effectively, I’m trying to get the module up to a level 7 adventure to compensate for the parties lack of diversity.
I don't remember what it was called but it is for a party of 4 of levels 3. 20 giant bees (plus a queen bee) have made a wooden bridge spanning a chasm their new home and it is blocking the only trade route to this halfling village. Mayer asks for help, party accepts (or else there is no adventure) and they fight off the bees. They can't use fire to get the bees out since it would burn the bridge down. There are high winds in the area and it is very difficult to smoke out the bees.
The adventure suggests making the module harder by making the bees (CR1) giant wasps (CR3) instead. Or give a couple of the bees the half-dragon template. Another suggestion it offered was to give the quest to the party druid or ranger and inform them that they need to deal with the bees but are not allowed to kill the bees. And finally, as a last suggestion, was to put in a murder that needs to be solved. For this, they suggested that the local wine maker was a 5th level sorcerer who wanted to make his wine taste better. He found the bee hive (not at the bridge – it didn’t exsist yet) and he took the honey. He also took the honey that designates a new queen bee and he put this in his wine. The bees come to town looking for a new queen and settle down in the bridge where there isn’t much traffic to bother them. The sheriff finds out what the wine maker did, the wine maker kills him to hide the fact and then the PCs come around finding hints that the wine maker is up to something suspicious. Once the PCs connect the wine maker to the murder of the sheriff, the wine maker uses hit and run tactics to kill the PCs with wands of monster summoning spells.
My problem is this – The ranger in the party has no master or mentor so I’m trying to figure out a way to make the party deal with the bees without killing them. If I change the bees to wasps … who wants to keep those around? That makes it very quickly into a hack and slash (which I want to avoid badly – the party just left the underdark and most of that adventure was hack and slash). Dragon bees seem odd to me, especially when I use the murder pitch that was offered in the module. Roasted honey wine?
I’d appreciate any suggestions to bump this level 3 module to one sort of challenging for a level 10 pc with a level 8 pc.
Ideally, the party would have to deal with the bees without killing them. Maybe find a place to relocate them and then do so. Along the way, they find they the wine maker is involved in a murder.
My primary concern is I have no valid reason to make the PCs keep the bees alive and if I change them out for wasps, it is another hack and slash adventure (all the halflings are scared and stay safely in town – few RPing opportunities). Suggestions? Effectively, I’m trying to get the module up to a level 7 adventure to compensate for the parties lack of diversity.
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